Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-20

the Waterlily, as ye call her-grow year
| by year, from tcnderest infancy to tender
| childhood, and from childhood on toward
maidenhood. She has been your childrens
PLAYMATE she has helped 10 tend you when
sick, and We have loved her."
We have" said deep voice, "and We will
die to save her"
Il thank you from my heart-I thank you.
! Sure am that now, in this hour Of darkest
trouble, now that her young life is like to be
cut off by cruel and savage men-who of
truth know not what they do'-ye will strive
your best TO save her, avd to save me and her
mother from broken hearts Think, too, OF
| your own wives and children II she dies,
her death will be followed by an attack upon
us here and at the best, even il we hold our
own, your houses and gardens will be de-
stroyed and your goods and cattle swept
away. | am, as ye well know, man OF
peace Never in all these years have l lifted
my hand 10 shed mans blood; but now l say
| strike strike, in the name of God, who bade
us protect our lives AMI homes Swear to
| me, he went on, with added fervor-"swear
| TO me that while man OF you remains alive
| ye will strive your uttermost with me and
with these brave white men to save tue child
from bloody and cruel DEATH
Say no more, my father" said the same
deep voice, that belonged to n stalwart elder
| Of the mission; I'VE swear it May we and
ours die the death Of dogs. and our bones be
! thrown to the jackals and the kites, if we
break the oath! Ii is fearful thing to do,
nv father, SO few to strike at so many, yet
will We do it or die in the doing. WeswearT
"Ay. thus say we all" cbimed in the others.
Thus say we all, said l.
| at is WE'LL went on Mr.. Mackenzie. "Ye
are true men and not broken reeds to lean
on And now we will begin our preparations
in good earnest"
The men who were to form each little
party were carefully selected and still more
carefully and minutely instructed as to
! what was TO be done. After much con-
sideration it was agreed that the ten men led
by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the
camp, were not to carry firearms; that is,
with the exception OF Good himself, who had
q revolver as well as q short sword-the
Nasal "sine" which l had taken from the
body of our poor servant who was murdered
! in the canoe We feared that if they had fire
arms the result Of three cross fires carried on
at once would be that some Of our own people
would be shot; besides, it appeared to all Of
US that the work they had to do would
l ItSI De C6TTlel Win COiu
pecially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed,
great advocate Of cold steel We had with
Us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides
bali dozen Martins. armed myself with
ono Of the repeaters-my own; an excellent
weapon for this kind of work, where great
rapidity of fire is desirable, and fitted with
ordinary flap sights, instead of the usual
cumbersome sliding mechanism which they
4 L. fhAv-
and the two remaining ones were given to
two of his men, who understood the use Of
them md were noted shots. The Martins and
some rifles OF Mr.. Mackenze's were served
out, together with plentiful supply Of am
munition, TO the other natives who were to
| form the two parties whose duty it was to be TO
open fire from separate sides Of the kraal on
the sleeping Nasal, and who were fortunately
all more or less accustomed to the use Of q
gun
AS for Cmslopogaas, we know how he was
armed-with all ak. Ii may be remembered
that he, Sir Henry, and ths strongest Of the
! Askari were TO hold the thorn stepped en-
trance to the kraal against the anticipated
rush Of men striving TO escape or course,
for such a purpose as this guns were useless
Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari pro-
D
so happened that Mr. Mackenzie had in his
little store a selection OF the very best steel
English made hammer backed ak heads Sir
/ Henry selected one of these, weighing about
two and n half pounds and very brood in the
blade. and the Askari took another a si1s
smaller After Umslopogaas had put an
extra edge on these two ak heads, we fixed
them to three feet six helves, of which Mr.
Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock,
made of light but exceedingly tough native
wood, something like English ash, only more
springy. When two suitable helves had been
selected with great care, and the end of the
haft notched TO prevent the hand from slip
ping, the ak heads were fixed on them Us
firmly rs possible. and the weapons immersed
in a bucket OF water for half an hour. The
result Of this was to swell the wood in the
socket i'll such a fashion that nothing short Of
burning would get it out again. When this
important matter had been attended to by
Umsiopogaas, went into my room and pro-
ceeded TO open u little tin lined deal case,
which had not been undone since We left
England, and which contained-what do you
think!-nothing more or less than four mail
shirts.
1t seems almost laughabls to talk Of steel
shirts in these days of bullets, against which
they are, Of course, quite useless; but where
one has to do with savages, armed with
cutting weapons such as assegais or battle
axes, they afford the most valuable prutec-
ton, being, if we'll made, quiet invulnerable
to them. | have often thought that if only
the English government had in our savage
wars, and more especially in the Zulu war,
thought fit to serveout light steel shirts, there
would be many a man alive today who, as it
Is. is dead and forgotten
To return: on the present occasion We
blessed our foresight i'll bringing these shirts,
and also our good luck IN that they had not
been stolen by our rascally bearers when lhey
fun away with our goods As Curtis had